Liverpool, City and Chelsea stars unite against racism with banana photos

Some of the world’s biggest and best names have posted photos eating bananas in wake of the racist behaviour seen towards Barcelona’s Dani Alves

Footballers from across the globe have come together in support of Barcelona defender Dani Alves, after a banana was thrown at the Brazilian in a league match against Villarreal on Sunday.

Alves was taking a corner in the second-half of the match when a banana was thrown onto the pitch. The 30-year-old responded by taking a bite from the banana and tweeted his thanks to the fan responsible saying it gave him the energy to contribute to Barcelona’s next two goals.

The footballing world has been responding to the incident on social media over the last few days, posing for photos with a banana in support of anti-racism campaigns.

Manchester City stars Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Fernandinho have all posted pictures on their Twitter accounts, while ex-City stiker Mario Balotelli has also shown his support. Other players that have posted include PFA Player of the Year Luis Suarez, Chelsea’s Samuel Eto’o and Dani Alves’ Barcelona team-mate Neymar.

Here are some of the best picks of footballers uniting against racism.

Dan Connor

Dan is a sports journalism undergraduate from Barry, South Wales. He is a club journalist at West Bromwich Albion and a weekly writer for The Independent’s sport section. Previous work for BBC Sport, BBC Radio and Manchester United has seen Dan cover a range of sport such as rugby union, tennis and Formula One. His expertise lies in Welsh football, in particular with Cardiff and Swansea City.